


Confusing Touch

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Series: Mommy and Daddy's World Hopping - Between the Pages [12]
Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Fai is so conflicted, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, M/M, Massage, Poor poor baby Fai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-03 22:09:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5308913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One does not get into so many fights and come out feeling perfectly fine; luckily, Kurogane's got that "healing touch".</p><p> </p><p>... Yeah right. Kurogane's got <i>something</i>, all right, and Fai's pretty sure it's his heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confusing Touch

**Author's Note:**

> From a request meme on Tumblr! If you ever have any requests, feel free to send me an ask/message over there, or comment on one of my fics!
> 
> Set somewhere around Jade Country.
> 
> I do not own _Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle_. Thanks for reading~

Fai yawned and curled further into his blankets, blinking wearily into the bright sunshine that was streaming in through the windows. There was a knock on the door - more like a pounding of a fist against the wood - and Kurogane's voice drifted in to him.

"Are you going to stay in bed all day, mage?"

 _Maybe_ , Fai thought to himself, tugging the blankets a little bit closer. Then he cleared his throat and "I'm fine, Kuro-pon~" he called.

There was a pause from outside the door, in which Fai hoped Kurogane was going to leave it alone, but... no. The door opened a second later and Kurogane stepped in. "I didn't ask you if you were fine," he said, closing the door and crossing his arms. "What's wrong?"

Fai blinked, opening his mouth in preparation to say that absolutely nothing was wrong, but... _bleh_. It wasn't worth the effort. "I still hurt all over, after that battle with Kiishim-san," he whined. "Thanks so much for moving me out of the way, Kuro-tan," he complained, teasingly, although he really did _hurt_. "My back hurts."

Kurogane stared at him before smirking. "Falling apart in your old age, eh?"

Fai wanted to glare, but laughed instead. _You couldn't begin to hazard a guess at how old I am, Kuro-sama_. "I guess so," he said out loud, and grinned ruefully.

Kurogane sighed. "Do you-" He stopped, and Fai perked up as the light of an idea filtered into Kurogane's gaze. Ooh, the ninja had an idea. "Well, I mean," Kurogane continued, "I could give you a massage."

A massage? Fai probably would have put more energy towards being surprised had he not been in pain. "Kuro-pippi does not know how to give massages." Not that Fai had ever had one, either, so how would he know?

"I'm not professional or anything, but I can," Kurogane grumbled. "Do you want to be in pain or not in pain?"

"... Not in pain, preferably," Fai admitted, stretching a little, and wincing because of it. "Go ahead. Kuro-rin better not make me hurt worse!"

"Yeah, yeah. Take your shirt off, I'll go see if I can find some things."

"Things?" Fai asked, but Kurogane had already opened the door and left. The mage rolled his eyes and pushed away the blankets enough to catch the hem of his shirt to pull it off, inauspiciously trying to crack his back in the meantime. Theoretically, he could get out of bed if he _had_ to, it wasn't so debilitating... but it did hurt nonetheless, which just made him not want to leave bed at all.

Kurogane was back in a few minutes, and Fai didn't bother to drag his face from the pillows to greet him.

"See you've made yourself comfortable," Kurogane said.

"Mhmm."

Kurogane made a noise like a huff. "Well, I managed to actually find oil, so that was a happy surprise."

"... Oil? Like for cooking?"

"... Really? Yeah, I'm gonna marinate you and stick you in a frying pan. Put the manjuu bun in for flavor."

Fai laughed, even though he didn't understand the apparent obvious concept of massage. "Ouch. Sounds painful, Kuro-pippi."

If Kurogane ever laughed, it was the sound he made just then. He didn't laugh often. Or smile. The complete opposite of Fai, really.

"Might be a little cold at first," Kurogane said. "If it hurts too much, tell me."

"Uh huh~"

"I mean it," Kurogane said seriously. "Starting up here," he added, tapping Fai's shoulders with a finger.

"But the pain isn't-" Fai stuttered to a stop as Kurogane's hands, cool and damp with the oil he'd brought, pressed against his previously overheated skin. It felt... nice. Better than, maybe just. He did not pick up his line of thought.

"What was that, mage?"

"Nothing~"

"Hmph."

Fai breathed out a sigh as Kurogane worked the oil into the skin of his neck and shoulders, the cool replaced with warm as the ninja's hands warmed from the skin-to-skin contact, warming the oil, reheating Fai's skin again. He relaxed into the blankets and curled his arms around his pillow. This was nice.

He thought he must have been dozing when Kurogane's hands left his skin. He was near to finding his lips through the haze and the smell of whatever oil Kurogane was using, when his ears picked up the flick of a lid and Kurogane's hands were back a minute later.

Fai sighed again, this time a little shakily, muffling it into the pillow, as Kurogane's fingers kneaded into the sore spots on Fai's back, pressing hard into places Fai didn't know he could hold pain or tension. But Kurogane was chasing it away, all with a simple press of strong fingers into skin, hands splayed against his back. Kuro-sama had big hands. Strong hands. Sliding slickly against his skin, seeking out the stress and knots and pain. Slipping lower against his back, fingers pressing heavily against his sides, where he was ticklish, thank you very much, and he squirmed against the blankets and-

Oh.

Oh, _oh_.

Not prone to embarrassment as much as he was, Fai felt his cheeks warm nonetheless when he became startling, suddenly (stupidly) aware that Kurogane's touch was doing things to him that _did not need to be happening downstairs_.

_What the hell are you thinking?_

Well, his little mage could just go right back to sleep because no. No, he did not like this. One bit. He did not like Kurogane. He could not _afford_ to like Kurogane. They'd both be hurt if he liked Kurogane. So, he couldn't. And he couldn't have Little Mage dictating that to him. Little Mage was not allowed to dictate anything to him. Smarter heads would prevail. Wait, what?

Kurogane's fingers hit a particularly sore spot and Fai bit his lip until he tasted blood to bite back the moan (not doing that now, not in a million years, not with these sudden revelations, the ones he kept having and having to batter down again, could not could not could _not_ be in love with the anti-social ninja).

"... You're supposed to tell me when it hurts," Kurogane spoke, sounding critical.

Fai let out a breath through clenched teeth. The pain was already dulling, but the surprise had been enough to jar him out of his head. "It doesn't."

"Liar. You tensed up."

"So perceptive... Kuro-san..." But thankfully not _too_ perceptive.

"Well, _someone_ has to be," Kurogane grumbling, expertly smoothing the lingering pain away with the pads of his fingers.

Fai garbled an incoherent response, relaxing again as those fingers kept working at his skin. He was certain that he would have melted into the blankets had it not been for certain _other_ problems, but at least the massage, if he didn't think too much about and let his mind go adrift, was making him sleepy. Getting off seemed entirely too daunting. _~~But Kuro-sama could do it for you~~~_ _SHUT UP._

He focused on breathing instead, slowly and steadily, until the rush of his pulse in his ears melded into white noise, and then nothing.

When Fai opened his eyes again, it was dark in the room. The curtains had been drawn and the blankets were tucked up around his shoulders. He blinked numbly into space, noticing a small container with a note stuck to it on the bedside table. Struggling to push the blankets away, he reached out with heavy fingers for the note.

Eat when you wake up

It was Kurogane's horrible scrawl, and Fai pried the container open a bit to find food, although he wasn't hungry yet. "Such a Daddy..." he murmured with a tiny smile, and rolled over. He froze up for an instant and then realized that there was no pain in his back, not like before, and he blew out a breath. So he _had_ known what he was doing. That was nice. The side effects, however... not so much. Better in more ideal circumstances, but now? He couldn't afford it, and he definitely couldn't risk it.

Fai-Mommy could not fall in love with Kuro-Daddy. Nuh uh, no way, not at all.

... So, then, he wondered, why had he allowed himself to?

 


End file.
